Her Longest Marathon: A Runner's Race to Survive

Her Longest Marathon: A Runner’s Race to Survive Life can change suddenly. A life-long athlete and runner, Joyce Lance, was out doing her morning run in preparation for an upcoming 20-mile marathon, and nearly lost her life after suddenly being hit by a car at 50 mph October 6, 2000, Joyce Lance, a fifty-two-year-old Houstonian, a transplant from the stark heartlands of Minnesota, raised on a pig farm and a survivor of past adversity, was about to face her greatest personal obstacle. At five am, only four miles into her twenty-mile training run, Joyce was hit, head-on, by a speeding car, sending her to the hard, wet, morning pavement, broken, bleeding, and barely alive. So begins her new passage into survival--and an arduous recovery fueled by love, support, and spirit. Her Longest Marathon is an investigational tale written by a medical doctor using hospital charts, police records, interviews, and letters to compose this account of a remarkable woman, assumed dead by an EMS fireman who thought she would make a good organ donor. Rich with inspiration, this book reveals the special courage of an extraoridinary personal reccovery, from the gory accident, to a trauma center’s hours of resuscitation, numerous surgeries, and on to months of physical and mental rehabilitation as seen through the eyes of a son, family, friends, doctors, nurses, and the resiliently disciplined and unwavering faith of Joyce herself. Full of the complexity of human drama, Her Longest Marathon is a compelling tale of inner strength and equanimity. “Because not many people are marathon runners who get hit by a car going fifty miles and hour, my accident is an extreme example of what can happen. I believe I can help others deal with unwanted events in their lives. “ I truly believe that we all have it within ourselves to draw from this inner strength to overcome and conquer the unexpected. “We all have the ability to change and to overcome obstacles. It’s deep within us. We just have to find it inside.” --Joyce Lance.